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Spherix Mission Science Goals

27:24 recording · AUTO · 2 speakers

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Brief overview

SPHEREx maps the whole sky in 102 colors to probe inflation, galaxies and interstellar ices.

  1. Passive cooling replaced cryogen in low Earth orbitMirrored photon shields and V-groove radiators held the telescope a few degrees above absolute zero, with no fluid to boil off and no mechanical cooler to break down.
  2. A survey telescope, not a targeted oneHubble and Webb are built for maximum magnification on tiny areas, so mapping the whole sky in the infrared needed a different way of taking data.
  3. Risk hides in the simple thingsFanson's recurring lesson is that problems develop where little attention or resource was spent, not only in the advanced technology areas.
Executive Summary AI
  • Host Andres Almeida introduces SPHEREx, launched in March of 2025, and its project manager Dr. Jim Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a mission built to map the sky in detail never seen before.0:33
  • Fanson lays out three science objectives — the origin of the universe, the formation and evolution of galaxies, and the location of biogenic ices in the Milky Way — plus a legacy all-sky spectral survey giving every point in the sky 102 wavelength data points.2:00
  • To distinguish between models of cosmic inflation, the team will map about 500 million galaxies in three dimensions and test whether their distribution is Gaussian, searching for non-Gaussianity seeded in quantum fluctuations a trillionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.5:21
  • Because a competed Explorer mission could not afford the L2 orbit where Webb sits, SPHEREx cools its telescope and detectors passively in low Earth orbit with conical photon shields and V-groove radiators, reaching a few degrees above absolute zero exactly as predicted.15:58
  • Since launching on the 11th of March from Vandenberg Space Force Base, the team has turned on all subsystems, ejected the telescope cover and is fine-tuning pointing, detector noise, helium airglow and radiation effects during in-orbit checkout ahead of the two-year science survey.18:11
Key Quote
“But we're also producing a rich legacy survey data set, an all-sky spectral survey. So every point in the sky will have a spectrum of 102 different wavelength data points, which is the first such all-sky spectral survey of its kind.”
— Jim Fanson2:00
Key Quote
“Yeah, it's much less than a second. It's a very, very tiny fraction of time after the Big Bang.”
— Jim Fanson5:58
Key Quote
“It's really like opening a new window on the universe and you're seeing the universe in a way that we've never seen before.”
— Jim Fanson10:58